Crossing Realities
by The Cynical Asian
Summary: Rule of thumb on the internet; Don't open suspicious emails. Not even ones from KOG. Of course, I made mistake and you can guess what happened. I have to deal with the Elgang for who knows how long. Rated T for Language (Pardon my French) and I guess mild violence.


**Crossing Realities**

I, uh, suppose it's not every day that you receive a suspicious email. I really don't think so. Of course, the one day that I had received _that_ email still haunts me today- One second, the Elbrat lit my neighbor's cat on fire again... … … … OK, where was I? Oh yeah.

Well, it's not everyday that video game characters cross from their own world into yours either. That only happens in stories, _or so I thought._ No idea what I am trying to get at? I'll start from the beginning, email and all.

**- Christmas Eve -**

Today I had finished unpacking all my stuff after having moved into a new apartment three weeks ago (Unpacking takes time when you need to game, OK). It was nice, being able to get out of school early thanks to... certain circumstances. The place was kind of big, having a double-bed room and two single-bed rooms (One of them mine) along with a fold-out couch in the main room._ You could easily fit ten people in total here, ... if they don't mind sharing beds._

I was in between bites of a sandwich I had just made when I noticed an email notification on Google Chrome.

My inbox was filled with the usual. Notifications and newsletters for my various subscriptions, the common FanFiction update alert telling me that there was a new story, a new chapter, followers, etc. My eyes landed on the most peculiar email I've received, if you don't count the random emails I get from friends suggesting that I get penis-enlargement pills because of my racial orientation. They're pretty funny once in a while.

What was peculiar about the email was that I couldn't read it. It was in Korean.

_Well then, guess I gotta get someone to translate._

With the snap of a camera and a quick text, I sat back and stared at the email. I had figured it had to do with Elsword, the game I had been playing a lot as of late, since there was the game's logo itself along with images of the various characters available (Even the ones only in the Korean servers.)

I burned time by clearing dungeons on my shiny new Ara until finally my phone buzzed. "Forty-two minute response time, a new record for the ever-so-slow-to-answer Sushi." I thought out loud. Somewhere, a girl randomly sneezed for some inexplicable reason while receiving confused stares from her two best friends.

The email went on about me winning some sort of lottery or whatnot, and that the award was supposed to come in the mail some time in the near future. The sender, KOG, didn't even bother to tell me what I was supposed to be expecting but the email said that as compensation for waiting, they would give me $50 USD worth of K-Ching. As much as the whole thing sounded like total bull, I checked the Item Mall to double check.

KOG wasn't shitting me, they really did send me the 5000 K-Ching.

I lazily sat back and began to think. The whole thing seemed a bit wondrous to be real, and I didn't remember entering any lottery let alone the fact that KOG knew which account to send money to or even where I lived. Either way, the K-Ching was nice so I didn't mind.

I was just really curious as to what it was they were sending me.

Taking a look at the Elsword calendar a friend of mine had made for me, hand-drawn and everything. _Hey, it's Christmas Eve. It'd be one hell of a kicker if whatever they sent me came in tomorrow._

I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with my online friends, dungeon crawling, joining in some guild-sparring-gone-wrong and watching TV before I made myself some dinner and got to bed.

**- Christmas Day -**

I hate alarm clocks with a burning passion, yet I always had that stupid clock sitting next to my head every morning. I slammed my fist on the clock so hard I thought I had broke it.

After a quick shower and throwing on some clothes, I grabbed an apple and headed out to the local Starbucks for a few cups of caffeinated fuel for the usual sitting-at-home-during-the-holidays-doing-nothing-but-gaming time. As I locked my apartment door and headed out, I passed the mailman to notice two things. 1) He had shockingly red hair along with a pair of red eyes (contacts, maybe?), and 2) he looked kind of young for a mailman.

The mailboy, the title seemed appropriate, and I exchanged 'good mornings' as he went on to deliver the unusually large package he was carrying and I down to the city. I suppose that I didn't even think twice of asking him who that package was, I didn't see which apartment building he had gone into anyway.

Either it was me, or everyone I passed were always couples. I didn't see a single person that was, well, single.

I walked into the nearby Starbucks to find that there wasn't a line. My lucky day. Normally the place would be packed to the brim and a line would extend to outside, especially on days like this. I casually strolled up to the cashier and pretended to stare at the menu. "I'll just have the usual.

The cashier blinked twice at me, and the silence made me realize that she wasn't the regular girl at the cash register. I couldn't tell whether she had blonde or light-green hair, and I had thought for a second that she had pointy ears. _I should probably get more sleep..._

"Er, four- no, five coffees with milk, three sugars in each." The girl nodded and rang up the order. The guy who was making the drinks today seemed to be new too, his tanned skin and unfamiliar raven black hair gave it away. There again I thought I saw something, this time it looked like his left arm was made of metal. A few blinks like the last time made it go away.

"Your coffee, sir?" The raven-haired man handed me a cardboard cup holder with the five drinks. I thanked him, took the coffee and headed home.

I suppose my day couldn't have been any more weird than it already was. On the way home I swear I saw a small black orb-like thing floating around. It looked like some sort of robot out of a videogame. I only blinked once and it suddenly disappeared.

Sitting back in my chair, I stretched as I took another sip of coffee and stared at my computer screen completely unsure of what I really wanted to do. Whatever it was that KOG sent me still hadn't arrived yet so I just sat around bored out of my mind over what to do.

A few 'Merry Christmas' texts later I heard a knock at the door, probably the package I'd been waiting for. I walked up to my apartment's front door, coffee still in hand, and unlocked it. I barely had any time to open the door when it was forcefully swung open.

A black ball similar to what I had thought I'd seen early flew directly at my face, knocking me out cold as my cup of coffee hit the floor.

* * *

I woke up laying on my couch having an immense feeling of deja vu, almost as if this happened before (I mean the whole passing out when answering the door), when I noticed a rather strange group of people sitting at my dining room table, chatting the day away and eating a newly opened bag of chips.

I quietly propped myself up using my elbows and stared at the people. Three of them I had almost instantly recognized, the mailboy and the two Starbucks employees, or whoever they really were. I counted seven people sitting at the dinner table.

Slowly and silently I reached for my phone to call the cops, only when my hand reached where I had left it I felt not a phone but someone else's hand. I spun around to face the stranger to see a strange white-haired girl staring at me, holding a white ball in her arms while a black one floated by her head.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?"

… Or so I thought I shouted. I had sprung off the couch and crashed into someone, landing with a somewhat muffled thud. Whatever it was I landed on sure felt soft though. I lifted my head and shook it to clear my senses before looking up.

"Well. This is awkward." I almost face to face with a girl about my age, her orange eyes stared back at me as tears beaded in the corners of her eyes.

Before I could do anything I felt a sharp kick to my side as I was helplessly tossed to the side. I could hear one of the people saying "Gosh Aren, you don't have to be so harsh. We're supposed to be a Christmas surprise but _someone_ had forgot to fix her buggy drone."

Did I say a sharp kick? Well, it felt more like a tiny chain of explosions rippled across my side as I writhed in pain for a good thirty seconds.

"So uh… Who are you... people?" I was still being cautious, having no idea who the strangers in my apartment were.

An awkward silence ensued before "mailboy" stepped forwards and stuck out his hand in a polite gesture. "I'm Elsword."

_What. The. F*ck._

There was no way in hell that the Elgang were in my house, let alone actually existed.

* * *

Over what was left of the coffee, the Elgang's situation was explained in full detail to me. Thanks to the whole contest thing that I won without even knowing I was in it, they were here for what was supposed to be a specified number of days.

Unfortunately for me _and_ them, the letter from KOG they had did not say anything about how long they'd be around, only that they were expected to stay with me for some time.

I barely even told them my name when Rena, the girl who was the cashier down at Starbucks, already began making dinner. "I heard that today was supposed to be a special kind of day, like the Festival of Harmony back home."

"Yeah, we call it 'Christmas'." I was standing there still slightly baffled by the fact that the Elgang were all in my house while they were busy looking around my house. It wasn't very hard to find Eve, she was on my computer doing El-knows-what.

Chung and Elsword had already gotten to my TV, arguing over whether to use the Xbox One or PS4. Aisha was sitting in between them reading a book on... something magical. I could only feel the tension around the three rising as Aisha suddenly slammed her book shut.

Everyone else besides Elsword and Chung took cover as a miniature explosion rocked the apartment. Poor guys...

I found Raven sitting on the floor of one of the bedrooms meditating. Silently, I closed the door to the room so I wouldn't disturb them.

Elsa and Aren were just sitting at the dinner table talking as Rena was busy still preparing dinner. I sat down across from them.

"Hey Aren, why're you here?" I asked. "I know you're not part of the Elgang so-to-speak. You're an NPC.

Aren gave me a bit of a cold stare as Elsa answered for him. "We were allowed to bring extra people with us, but we only brought him because we had the feeling we'd already be a crowd as is. That, and he wouldn't bear to let Ara go to another world, even with us. You can probably see why." Aren's stare intensified as a cringed at the memory of the kick he gave me. 

* * *

It was after dinner that I realized we had to sort out who slept where.

"So uh, five beds and ten people. Everyone pair up I guess?" I kind of expected a scrambling fight over who slept with who for the night, but everyone was completely calm about it. Elsword and Aisha, Chung and Eve, Raven and Rena, Elsa and Aren, and...

I stared blankly at Ara.

"Nope, not happening. We're going home." Aren moved to grab his younger sister, but Elsa was holding him back. "NO AREN! WE'RE STAYING HERE FOR THE NIGHT. JUST LET IT GO THIS ONCE." Without effort, Elsa dragged a ranting Aren into the other single-bed room and shut the door. Raven and Rena decided to take the fold-out couch, which meant that Elsword, Aisha, Chung and Eve were going to be in the double-bed room.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I turned to Ara. "You can take the bed, I'll sleep on the floor. That alright with you?" She nodded quietly.

I checked to make sure everyone was getting some sleep (Except for Eve, she threatened to end my life on the internet if I tried to take my computer from her) and told them all to keep whatever they did quiet.

Back in my room, I found Ara fast asleep. To be honest, she was kinda cute. Without thinking I sat down on the bed and petted her head lightly.

When I did realize what I was doing, an image of Aren's angry face flashed before my eyes that made me jump. 

* * *

Sleeping on the floor sucks, I can tell you that much. I lay there staring at the ceiling for a good twenty minutes just thinking. Was I dreaming or did the Elgang really come to my house?

I moved to get up when I was pulled back to the floor by my arm. "Wha?"

Ara was laying there fast asleep, hugging my arm. I froze right there.

_Aren is going to f*cking kill me.  
_

* * *

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

***throws confetti in the air***

**Well, that marks the start of a new story :D**

**(Not really, just redoing Elsword: Writer's Imagination from scratch)**

**I uh… think I knock myself out a few too many times in my stories…**

**WELL LET'S KEEP UP WITH THE TREND :D *shot***

**I'm hoping you guys have a great Christmas, apart from the probably dreadful family dinners and *cringes* social gatherings.**

**Assuming everyone already knows Ara's out and probably has one, how far have you guys gotten on your Aras? Mine is already level 49 and at Burning Hope Bridge. Trying to get that Speedaholic title but lack of stamina and stamina potions is a b*tch qq**

**And no, what happened between me and Ara is not because Ara just recently came out. I swear.**

**Any questions, comments? Leave them in a review and I'll do my best to respond. I'll try to keep this alive as I sort out life (college level classes as a senior means a lot of work). There may be a few inside jokes that only a couple of people will understand, so I'll try to explain them in upcoming chapters (If I remember to write them lol)**

**This is Asian/Asiansworth/Alex/Asian Alex/The Cynical Asian signing off, see ya!**


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